Ingredient
Prebiotics
Also known as Inulin, Fructooligosaccharides, FOS, Dietary fibre
Non-digestible fibres such as inulin that feed beneficial gut bacteria, and are distinct from probiotics, which are the live bacteria themselves.
Prebiotics are fibres the body cannot digest but that beneficial gut bacteria can, inulin and the fructooligosaccharides chief among them. They are added to functional or reduced-fat products both for their claimed health role and because, as fibres, they can help bind water and stand in for some of the fat. The key distinction, and the reason this is a separate entry, is that prebiotics feed bacteria while probiotics are bacteria; the two are often confused and are not the same thing.